Over the last twelve months the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has reported a rise in the number of complaints about payday loans, and this was confirmed in their Annual Report published May 2016.
We believe that this reflects the increasing involvement of claims management companies and focus on complaints regarding historic loan agreements.
BCCA members have concerns about the approach that the ombudsman is taking to these cases. Feedback from members focusses in on two areas.
- First is that there seems to be the application of current best practice and rules to historic cases, rather than the regulation that was in place at the time. The market has undergone many changes and issues that were up for discussion a few years ago have now been resolved with new regulation.
- Second is the perception of inconsistency of decisions across very similar cases. As the decision is made on the basis of what is ‘fair and reasonable’ it comes down to the judgement of individual adjudicators. That makes it difficult for both the firm and the customer.
We have been taking up these issues with FOS over the last few months, and continue to engage in constructive dialogue.
For more information about FOS click here.
Latest updates
To see our latest news posts on this topic please click here.
Please note BCCA members also receive regular ‘members only’ briefings on this issue.